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California Retains Drought Measures

/in /by /The Associated Press (As published by NBC San Diego)

Water regulators in California on Wednesday extended what are now largely symbolic conservation measures lingering from the drought after the state has seen one of the wettest winters in years. Regulators decided to retain the measures at least until spring as a precaution against the possible return of dry weather. “I don’t think there’s just one way to go,” Felicia Marcus, chair off the State Water Resources Control Board, said after several local water districts urged members to lift the regulations. “The better decision is to extend it and see later where we are.”

 

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OPINION: Brown’s Big Legacy Projects Could Be Trump’s Targets

/in /by /The Fresno Beeby Dan Walters Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Gov. Jerry Brown devoted most of last month’s State of the State address to excoriating Donald Trump, who had been president for just four days. “We have seen the bald assertion of alternative facts,” Brown complained. “We have heard the blatant attacks on science. Familiar signposts of our democracy – truth, civility, working together – have been obscured or swept aside.” However, buried in Brown’s anti-Trump screed were two paragraphs of semi-cordiality:

 

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OPINION: Outrageous Water Charge For Our Agricultural Ranch

/in /by /Valley Roadrunner (Valley Center) Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Yesterday our ranch got this water bill from Yuima.   The charge last month for the MET/SDCWA FIXED FEE was $297.41.  This month it is $3400.82 and Yuima tells me that we will pay that every month.  They also said it is a complete pass through to those two entities. Our ranch is struggling and we have lost a considerable amount of money the last two year.  Our well levels have decreased and our usage of Yuima water has greatly increased.  This month and last month were small but we have paid as much as $59K for one month.

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Otay Water District’s Ambitious Plan to Bring in Desalinated Water From Mexico

/in /by /NBC San Diegoby May Tjoa Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Even as California residents debate whether we are free from the drought, local water agencies are looking for ways to increase their water supply. The Otay Water District is working on a project that would involve desalinated water from a new plant being built in Rosarito, Mexico. The district wants to build a 3.5 mile pipeline from the U.S-Mexico border to its 36.7 million gallon reservoir in Otay Mesa. The pipeline would transport some of that desalinated water to customers in Spring Valley, La Presa, Rancho San Diego, Jamul and eastern Chula Vista.

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How San Diego Went From Booster to Skeptic on the State’s Massive Water Project

/in /by /Voice of San Diegoby Ry Rivard Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority
Quoted: Jim Madaffer

Gov. Jerry Brown wants to build two 35-mile underground tunnels to keep water coming south through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta. The San Diego County Water Authority used to pine for such a plan. But now, emboldened by its drought-proofing projects and wary of shocking ratepayers, the agency is aggressively questioned Brown’s delta tunnels. For over 50 years, the San Diego County Water Authority championed projects that bring water to Southern California from Northern California. But no more.

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Planners Report on Implementing Groundwater Law

/in /by /AgAlert (Sacramento)by Christinte Souza

With a key deadline approaching, people involved in groundwater management say cooperation will be needed to accomplish goals set forth in the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Local agencies must form Groundwater Sustainability Agencies by June 30. The local GSAs will make decisions that affect groundwater use and fees, as they develop local Groundwater Sustainability Plans. Plans for groundwater basins identified as “critically overdrafted” must be in place by 2020; all others must be in effect by 2022.

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California Water Venture Tied to Trump Sees Prospects Rise After Years of Setbacks

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Stuart Leavenworth

Until Donald Trump won the presidency, prospects looked bleak for Cadiz, a California company that has struggled for years to secure federal permits to transform Mojave Desert groundwater into liquid gold. With the change of administration, a new day is dawning. In December, the National Governors Association circulated a preliminary list of infrastructure projects provided by the Trump transition team, and Cadiz’s was on the list. The company’s stock price rose on that news, part of a trend that has seen Cadiz’s valuation more than double – to roughly $14 a share – since the election.

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Engineers Assess Spillway Problem at Oroville Dam

/in /by /KQED (San Francisco)by Dan Brekke

State water officials say engineers are still in the process of assessing damage to the spillway at Oroville Dam and figuring out what they can do to fix it “They’re evaluating the situation intensively this morning,” said Ted Thomas, the chief spokesman for Department of Water Resources. “They’re looking at what their options are for repair.” An extensive section of concrete on the spillway, which is used to manage the level of Lake Oroville, has peeled away or collapsed.

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California’s History of Dry Spells in Photos

/in /by /NBC Southern Californiaby Jonathan Lloyd

Dry spells come and go in California, where the difference between a wet and dry year often depends on how much precipitation the state gets from just a few storms during winter. During the period of recorded water history, California’s most significant statewide droughts were 1929-34, 1976-77, 1987-1992, 2007-09 and the current five-year drought, according to the state department of water resources. The 2007-09 drought was was the first for which a statewide emergency was declared.

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OPINION: San Ysidro Schools’ Lead Threat A Wake-Up Call For All

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune

The discovery in drinking water of lead, copper and bacterial contamination due to aging plumbing at La Mirada Elementary School in the San Ysidro School District should be a wake-up call for all local — and state — districts with older schools. San Ysidro officials are so worried about the possibility of water contamination at two other campuses with older buildings, Smythe Elementary School and San Ysidro Middle School, that they are distributing bottled water at all three schools until it’s clear that water from their fixtures is safe to drink.

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